Give The Handicapped A Break

Give The Handicapped A Break

Future Reflections Winter 1987, Vol. 6 No. 1
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GIVE THE HANDICAPPED A BREAK
by Robert Bernstein
(Editor's Note: This was printed in
the April-June 1986 issue of the NFB Spokeman in California. Here is what
the Spokesman editor said about the
author and the article.
"Robert Bernstein is a lawyer with
the U.S. Department of Justice and a
free-lance writer. He wrote this
article especially for The Sacramento
Bee.")
Eric Weihenmayer is a 16-year-old high
school junior in Weston, Conn. He also
is blind and wrestles for his high
school team, which recently inspired ABC
to do a 20/20 piece about him. Like
most media treatment of the subject of
disability, this one almost certainly
set back the cause of handicapped
persons.
I mean no disrespect to Eric. He
obviously is a fine, intelligent and
spirited young man. It is the ABC producers
who, meaning it or not, have
shown disrespect. Not just to Eric, but
to millions of disabled persons who are
tired of being treated as helpless and
of being denied full admission into
society.
The thrust of the 20/20 episode was
wholly predictable. The typical media
"disability story" remains that of a
person (the younger the better) who, to
the amazement of alL has "overcome" his
or her handicap to do something that
"normal" people do. The one-legged
skier and armless automobile driver are
staples of the genre.
What's wrong with that? Perhaps, you
say, Barbara Walters and Hugh Downs, in
their 20/20 paean to Eric, might have
over played the tone of reverential, awe.
But, a little excusable hype aside,
where's the harm in finding inspiration in such a tale of grit?
Well, far starters, one man's inspiration
is another's tragic sterotype.
Note the premise from which such "inspirational"
yams proceed: Accomplishment
by a handicapped person, therefore, is
something out of the ordinary, something
to be lustily, sometimes tearfully,
hailed. "You're either a piece of garbage
or a hero," explains a one-legged
friend of mine. "It's almost impossible
for a disabled person to be accepted as
average."
In Eric's case, for example, the
viewer is supposed to be awe-struck by
the fact that a blind boy can participate
in organized wrestling. The supposition
is poppycock.
I know a blind lawyer who litigates
federal tax cases for a living. I know
a blind woman who lives alone, edits a
national newsletter and regularly Flips around the country to address professional
meetings.
The examples could be multiplied by
the thousands. What these persons have
"overcome" is not so much their inability
to see as the barriers erected by a
society that would deem them useless.
The lawyer in his spare time likes to
water ski, and he goes on frequent
cross-country hikes and tandem bicycle
rides. Such pastimes would make marvelous
grist for the media mill, but in
fact are rather fringe aspects of his
life.
The concept of "overcoming" a handicap
serves, however unintended, a dark end.
It keeps alive the convenient notion
that it is the disabled person who alone
must do the overcoming, and that society
has no responsibility in this regard.
The human body and soul are remarkably
adaptive. There is no inherent reason
why any but the most severely disabled
person cannot be useful and productive.
Millions today nevertheless are idle.
They are victims not merely of their
physical or mental impairments, but also
of a society that has been traditionally
structured to exclude them.
Part of the problem is purely mechanical--a
paucity of accessible buildings
and public transportation. Another part
is legal or quasi-legal, having to do
with disincentives built into public
entitlements and private insurance
plans.
But a lot of it has to do with attitudes.
Wrongheaded notions of what it
means to be disabled are deeply embedded
in the consciousness of handicapped and
ablebodied persons alike. The "overcoming"
stories feed these sterotypes,
and mask the social responsibility.
How does a paraplegic "overcome" a
lack of accesible buildings and public
transportation--without which he cannot
make it to a job interview, much less a
daily job? How can even an Eric Weihenmayer
"overcome" discriininatory hiring
practices by would-be employers? And,
significantly, where is the media coverage
of these important issues?
The bottom line for Eric, of course is
that he has not overcome his handicap.
He still is, and will remain, blind. It
is unlikely he will earn a living by
wrestling. So in a few years he will
face the job market. The important
consideration then will be the extent to
which society will have lowered the
present obstacles.
One of the barriers, certainly, is the
media mind set that places accomplishments
by handicapped persons in the man-bites-dog
category.
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